Comparison

SigNoz vs Zipkin

On the evidence we track, SigNoz leads this comparison with a composite score of 58/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
★SigNoz58
Zipkin46
Score
vioscaleAI score
SigNoz58 / 100medium · 54%
Zipkin46 / 100low · 37%
Pricing
Free tier
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
Model
Price level
SigNozlow
Zipkinfree
Transparent
SigNoz✓
Zipkin–
Integrations
Count
SigNoz500
Zipkin9
Reliability
Status page
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
SigNoz0
Zipkin1,426
Github stars
SigNoz32,361
Zipkin17,464
Activity
Commits last 30d
SigNoz100
Zipkin0
Release
Cadence days
SigNoz5
Zipkin15
History
SigNoz20 items
Zipkin20 items
License
Spdx
SigNoz–
Language
Primary
ZipkinJava
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
SigNoz7 items
Zipkin6 items

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for distributed tracing tools. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Core
Trace role
SigNozSaaS platform
ZipkinTrace backend / store
Standards
OpenTelemetry support
SigNozOTel-native
Zipkin-
Multi-protocol (Jaeger + Zipkin + OTLP)
SigNoz-
Zipkin✓
Query
Trace search / filter by attributes
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
Service dependency graph
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
High-cardinality attribute exploration
SigNoz-
Zipkin-
Sampling
Tail-based / dynamic sampling
SigNoz-
Zipkin-
Instrumentation
Auto-instrumentation
SigNozAgent-based
ZipkinAgent-based
Correlation
Correlate traces with metrics/logs
SigNoz✓
Zipkin-
Deployment
Hosting
SigNozCloud + self-hosted
ZipkinSelf-hosted only
Architecture
Storage backend
SigNozColumnar database
ZipkinIn-memory, Apache Cassandra, Elasticsearch, OpenSearch

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

SigNoz

Leader

Open-source observability platform that brings together application telemetry—logs, metrics, and distributed traces—in a single interface, built natively around OpenTelemetry instrumentation. Available as a managed cloud service or self-deployed within your own infrastructure.

Independently observed

Zipkin

Zipkin captures detailed request tracking data from distributed systems, stores it using various backends, and provides a UI for searching traces by service, operation, and duration, along with visualization of service dependency diagrams.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

SigNoz

Leader
Usage-basedFree tier30-day trial

Usage-based cloud pricing from $49/month with 30-day free trial; free open-source self-hosted option.

  • SigNoz CloudFrom $49/month, usage-based pricing with 30-day free trial
    • logs
    • metrics
    • traces
    • alerts
    • dashboards
    • +2 more
  • Enterprise CloudContact sales
    • SOC 2 Type II
    • HIPAA compliance
    • RBAC
    • ingestion controls
    • custom retention
    • +3 more
  • BYOCContact sales
    • SOC 2 Type II
    • HIPAA compliance
    • RBAC
    • ingestion controls
    • custom retention
    • +1 more
  • Enterprise Self-HostedContact sales
    • SOC 2 Type II
    • HIPAA compliance
    • RBAC
    • ingestion controls
    • custom retention
    • +1 more
  • Open-Source Self-HostedFree
as of verify ↗

Zipkin

Open source
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
CLI
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✗
Self-hosted
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✓
On-premise
SigNoz✓
Zipkin✗

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (2)
  • Elasticsearch
  • RabbitMQ

SigNoz

Leader
25 total - 23 not shared
  • Apache
  • HAProxy
  • Open WebUI
  • DSPy
  • HCP Vault
  • OpenTelemetry eBPF
  • Langflow
  • Cohere
  • Auth0
  • PgBouncer
  • Kubernetes
  • Git
  • Jira
  • Google Chat
  • Slack
  • PagerDuty
  • Opsgenie
  • MS Teams
  • OpenTelemetry Collector
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • incident.io
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Prometheus
Independently observed

Zipkin

11 total - 9 not shared
  • HTTP
  • Kafka
  • Apache ActiveMQ
  • gRPC
  • Apache Pulsar
  • Apache Cassandra
  • OpenSearch
  • Brave
  • Apache Kafka
Independently observed
Still deciding?

SigNoz or Zipkin: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.